Telling us he needs to go outside

Our 3.5 month old lab has learned to go and stand by the back door when he needs to go outside. The problem comes when no one notices that he's there (he doesn't make a sound) and then he'll go and squat somewhere in the house. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get him to tell us in a different way? I know a lot of dogs will come and stare at you. Is that learned behavior?

At 3.5 months you should probably just take him out several times a day anyway. Our golden retriever/samoyed whines by the door. He started doing that when he was 7 months. Maybe your's will do that too, but i'm not promising anything. Sorry i couldn't give you more help.

I've read about teaching a dog to "touch" (a target) and teaching touching a string of bells to go out. The reason we haven't done it is that our older dog wants to go out - a lot - for other reasons to (eg to chase deer or squirrils that have wandered through the yard) and I'm afraid we'd become a noisy, jingly household if we provide bells. On the other hand we're having the same problem with our puppy, where he mostly goes outside but doesn't know how to ask. We potty him at least every 3 or 4 hours except at night (he goes through the night - yay!) but he's still having rare accidents.

Lou Lou did ring the bell alot for about a month. But most of the time I could tell if she really needed to go outside or if she justed wanted to go outside. We told her to go lay down or told her no.( I know that that could confuse some dogs though, so I am not sure what to tell you) She only rings it now when she needs to go potty.

Our Bloodhound mix, at 4 months learned to scratch the door, to let us know, now at 1 1/2yrs old he still oes this, bu because it is a glass door, mostly he does this because he sees something he wants to chase. Now if he has to realy go out and potty he comes over and licks my arm! He has learned this all on his own, not sure how to go about and teach this.

Duke comes and looks at you. All you have to say is "You want to go potty?" and he gets all excited. I taught him the word potty at an early age.

I think it's a great idea to use a word, like," potty" or whatever word you
chose to signal the action you want from the dog.When they finish outside
you can say "good potty" & treat them (puppies usually).I think it helps to
use that one word to get the reaction you want from them.I used that same
method that you did Valerie.

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Why aren't you supervising a 3.5 month old puppy? You wouldn't let a baby crawl around on his own, so you shouldn't let a 3.5 month old puppy do the same. The house has too many tempting things that can hurt him, or that he can destroy without supervision!

GREAT that he has learned to go to the door, but its your fault you didn't notice -- you should be with him at all times. As he gets older and has prooven he can be trusted in the house then you can let him roam unsupervised and then he'll have learned naturally how ot come tell you. Until then stay with him at all times.

Duke comes and looks at you. All you have to say is "You want to go potty?" and he gets all excited. I taught him the word potty at an early age.

That's exactly what Benji does. He just stares. I just mouth the word "outside" and he barks and turns in circles. And if I turn around and say the word outside he'll jump at me or paw my leg. Usually he comes and stares first and if I ignore him he'll go and paw at the door. Sometimes if he really wants to go out, he'll paw at any random object that happens to be there. Now it's almost to the point that we can't say "outside" if we're not meaning it for him because he'll here it and come stare and bark.

That's what Bailey does......comes and stares.......just stares...LOL
So I ask him if he has to "pee pee" (I use this word for both) and he
trots to the door. He will also use the bathroom on command if I take him
out without him asking if I'm in a hurry and late starting out for work etc..

Both Frankie and Riley will come find me, stare at me until they know they have my attention, and then walk to the back door. If I don't come right away they'll come back and do the routine again. They're both adults now, but have done this from when they were little.

Riley knows the term "Go Potty" and even if she doesn't have to go, she'll run out to the lawn squat, and then come back and want in. She doesn't like to go potty anywhere other than her backyard, so it's nice to have a command when we're camping otherwise she would try and hold it then wake us up in the middle of the night.